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Fireball 5

Russian scientists report asteroid near-miss


RIA Novosti
Sun, 29 Sep 2013 22:56 UTC
Asteroid
© Moscow State University/MASTER/Vladimir LipunovAsteroid detected by Sternberg Astronomical Institute.
Moscow - A 15-meter (approximately 50 feet) asteroid, similar to the one that exploded above Russia in February, was detected hours before it nearly missed the Earth over the weekend, Russian scientists said.

Vladimir Lipunov of the Moscow State University and the Sternberg Astronomical Institute said on Sunday a network of telescopes operated by his team recorded a celestial body approaching the planet.

"[The asteroid] was discovered on Friday night by our station near Lake Baikal and nine hours later it flew within 11,300 kilometers of the Earth surface, below the orbit of geostationary satellites. It was about 15 meters in size," he said.

The scientists originally thought that it could be a man-made object, such as a spent rocket booster, but rejected the idea when they couldn't find a match in the space junk catalogue.

Lipunov said his team had notified the International Astronomical Union of their discovery, but it is yet to be confirmed.

A meteorite exploded on February 15 above the Urals city of Chelyabinsk. The meteorite weighed 10,000 tons prior to the explosion, according to expert estimates. About 1,500 people were injured in the blast, most of them by glass shattered by the shockwave.
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"I thought a plane hit": Another massive explosion obliterates house, this time in Connecticut - 17 September 2013


Associated Press
Tue, 17 Sep 2013 17:02 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/The Stamford Advocate, Lindsay PerryA firefighter walks through the burning rubble of a six-bedroom house on Webbs Hill Road in Stamford, Conn. that exploded on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2013.
Stamford, Connecticut - An explosion leveled a six-bedroom house on Tuesday, scattering debris hundreds of feet away, but nobody was inside and there were no serious injuries, authorities said.

The homeowner was outside near a pool house on the property in Stamford, about 35 miles northeast of New York City, at the time of the explosion, said the town's director of public safety, Ted Jankowski. The homeowner was alert and conscious when emergency crews arrived, and he was taken to a hospital for observation.

Next-door neighbor Charlene Heffernan said she heard the blast.

"I thought a plane hit my house," Heffernan told The Stamford Advocate. "I have never heard anything so loud. My house shook from the top down."

Mayor Michael Pavia said the cause of the blast was under investigation but authorities suspected gas was involved. He said a 500-gallon propane gas tank on site was under a controlled burn Tuesday afternoon.

Comment: Reported on the same day:

Massive explosion obliterates house in Ohio and kills 2- Debris scattered up to quarter-mile away, 17 September 2013

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Massive explosion obliterates house in Ohio and kills 2- Debris scattered up to quarter-mile away, 17 September 2013


Associated Press
Tue, 17 Sep 2013 16:54 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/The Blade, Dave ZapotoskyFirefighters douse hotspots following a house explosion Tuesday, Sept.17, 2013 in Stony Ridge, Ohio. Neighbors said the blast woke them up around 5 a.m. and that they saw flames at the ranch-style home near the village of Stony Ridge, about 15 miles south of Toledo. The explosion flattened the home and scattered pieces of it throughout the yard. The explosion left one person dead and three injured.
Stony Ridge, Ohio - An explosion leveled a home in northwest Ohio Tuesday morning, killing two people, injuring three and scattering debris up to a quarter-mile.

Investigators were looking into whether a leaking liquid propane tank near the home's attached garage sparked the blast, said Troy Township Fire Chief Randy Woodruff.

The tank was toppled over, and Woodruff said it was too soon to pinpoint the cause of the explosion.

Neighbors said the explosion woke them up around 5 a.m. and they saw flames at the ranch-style home near the village of Stony Ridge, about 15 miles south of Toledo.

One man died after being taken to a hospital, and the body of a woman was found in the rubble about six hours after the explosion.

When emergency responders arrived, four people were found outside the house, the Wood County Sheriff's Office said. Five people - all of them adults - lived in the home. Neighbors said they were a man, his wife, their two sons and a fiance.

Names of the victims were not released.

The explosion flattened the home and scattered pieces of it throughout the yard and across farm fields. Piles of insulation, mattresses, window screens and a door littered the yard. All that was left standing was a basketball hoop along the driveway.

Comment: Reported on the same day:

"I thought a plane hit": Another massive explosion obliterates house, this time in Connecticut - 17 September 2013

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Fireball 2

U.S. sees another bright fireball on September 27

Deborah Byrd
EarthSky Org
Sat, 28 Sep 2013 15:44 UTC
Meteor Sightings
© American Meteor Society“Heat map” September 27, 2013 fireball sightings.
The American Meteor Society (AMS) has reported at least 373 reports of another bright fireball - a very bright meteor, likely a small chunk of natural incoming space debris - over the U.S. last night (September 27, 2013). These reports followed a similar event over approximately the same area the day before (September 26).

The AMS called the coincidence of two bright fireballs, or bright meteors, spotted over approximately the same region on consecutive days "surprising." Witnesses from Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia reported a bright light moving across the night sky on September 27 at around 11:33 p.m. local time, according to the AMS.

Fireball might sound ominous, but it is just the word astronomers use to mean bright meteor. As seen from a whole-Earth perspective, fireballs are seen often. It's unusual to have two appear on consecutive nights over the same region, however.
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Friday night sky lights up with possible meteor over Ohio

Randy Ludlow
The Columbus Dispatch
Sat, 28 Sep 2013 23:19 UTC
The Columbus area was bathed in the eerie light of an apparent exploding meteor that streaked through the sky late Friday night.

A brilliant flash of light about 11:30 p.m. prompted some people to call Columbus police to ask about its origin while officers chatted about the event over their radios. Employees at WBNS-TV (Channel 10) said they couldn't keep up with the phone calls they were getting from people who had spotted the streaking light.

Dozens of people took to Twitter to report they had seen a brilliant meteor tracing across the night sky. "Like a shooting star, but 500x brighter," one person wrote.

"I saw it in Hilliard. Sky lit up like lightning and then saw the vapor trail change from blue to purple to orange for 20 to 30 seconds," wrote another.

Others reported that the meteor and its accompanying flash of light were seen over a wide area, including south of Columbus in Hocking and Ross counties.

There also were reports of it being seen in other states in the Midwest, the East and parts of Canada.
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Boom felt, bright light fills the sky over South Dakota

Devon Boen
The Gillette News Record
Wed, 25 Sep 2013 17:45 UTC
A surreal bright blue color illuminated the entire sky and was accompanied by a thunderous boom at about 9 p.m. Monday.

People from all parts of Campbell County can attest to witnessing the strange phenomenon that lasted only a few seconds.

Whendi Kiewel thought a plane was crashing right before her eyes as she drove her twin boys home from Rapid City, S.D. They were near Inyan Kara and the interstate exit for the Keyhole Reservoir when it happened.

"The sky just completely lit up. I couldn't figure out what it was," Kiewel said.

The sky was bright blue and it looked as though a massive shooting star was falling from the sky for about 30 seconds, Kiewel said. She, along with others, believe that the fireball was a meteorite.

"You could see it breaking apart and then it just kind of burned out," Kiewel said.

Many people heard a noise resembling loud thunder, but Kiewel and her sons only got to watch the show.

"I can't quit thinking about it," Kiewel said. "It was the most amazing thing."
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Meteor that streaked across Wyoming seen for 500 miles

Laura Hancock
Star-Tribune
Tue, 24 Sep 2013 19:03 UTC
Wyoming Fireball
© American Meteor Society
On Monday night, Casper resident Anne Ladd was driving on U.S. Highway 20 between Casper and Shoshoni when she caught in the corner of her eye a flash of green light, descending from the sky.

"It looked like it burned out before it hit the ground," she said. "But it got really close to the ground."

Ladd likely saw a fireball, a meteor brighter than the planet Venus, said Mike Hankey, a volunteer with the American Meteor Society.

About 25 people from Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and Utah reported to the society that they witnessed the 9 p.m. spectacle.

Campbell County Undersheriff Scott Matheney told the Gillette News Record on Tuesday that people called to report a loud, thunder-like noise and bright flashes of light.
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Fireball 5

Loud boom remains a North Whidbey mystery

Janis Reid
Whidbey News-Times
Tue, 24 Sep 2013 14:22 UTC
Washington state - A loud sound, described by many who heard it as a "boom," occurred around 10:45 a.m. Wednesday in the Crescent Harbor area.

The source of the noise remains undetermined.

On the Whidbey News-Times' Facebook page, some speculated it was aircraft operations in the area or an unintended sonic boom.

While air operations were being conducted that morning, representatives at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station said that they weren't doing any sort of training or operations that would have caused the noise.

The boom sent some Oak Harbor residents rushing outside to look up to the sky.

Aircraft could be heard flying overhead in Oak Harbor at the time of the boom.

Troy Taylor and Mike Harris were working at Jiffy Lube on State Highway 20 in Oak Harbor when they heard a sound that Taylor compares to a gunshot or car backfiring.
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Sheriff's office can't confirm meteor was source of noise over Kentucky county

Paul Wallem
Basin Radio Network
Tue, 24 Sep 2013 12:38 UTC
Meteor
© Basin Radio Network

If you heard a loud thunder-like noise a little after 9:00 p.m. Monday, you are not the only one. Campbell County Under Sheriff Scott Matheny said his office fielded some calls inquiring about the sound.

"Campbell County Sheriff's Department received several reports from residents in southern Campbell County of a loud noise that was somewhat like thunder but only longer in duration.

Some reported seeing a bright flash along with that We checked with the National Weather Service, we thought it might be a possible meteorite or even an earthquake, but they wouldn't release any information until they were done investigating."

Gillette residents in the Westover Subdivision and Lakeland Hills area also heard the yet unidentified sound.
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Fireball 5

Hundreds spot fireball streak across Texas

Sam Womack
Statesman.com
Sun, 22 Sep 2013 15:15 UTC

Hundreds of people across Texas flocked online to report seeing a bright ball of light in the sky around 9 p.m. Saturday.

People in Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Plano, Waco and Abilene, among other cities, described a brilliant flash or a white fireball. Some even caught colors and a sparkling tail.

Most reported seeing one, while a few spotted a second, smaller flash.

A witness in Georgetown said it looked like a firework about to explode in a report submitted to the American Meteor Society.

A Reddit poster said they were facing northwest from the University of Texas campus when they saw a bright light.

And a Smithville volunteer firefighter posted on Facebook that she spotted "the most brilliant, enormous falling star" begin as a green streak and then explode into a white fireball with orange projectiles.
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